The present invention relates to office furnishing systems. In recent times ever more widespread use has been made in modern offices of partition walls constituted by modular elements which can be assembled in various possible configurations and are used to divide an area into several separate work spaces. The partition walls usually extend from the floor to the ceiling of the area in which they are fitted and may be equipped with auxiliary elements such as bookshelves, suspended fittings or cupboards. The main advantage of the use of such partition walls lies, on the one hand, in the fact that the space available can be partitioned as desired fairly quickly and easily and, on the other hand, in their extreme flexibility in use which means that the furnishing of an area can be modified quickly and easily after its initial fitting-out, or even that elements originally used in one location can be re-used to furnish a different location.
A similar development, parallel to that indicated above, has also taken place in the field of office work-station furnishings (desks, boardroom tables, work surfaces for typists, etc.). In this field, it has also been proposed to use furnishing systems which provide for the assembly of modular elements in various possible configurations so as to fulfil the needs for ease, rapidity and flexibility of assembly.
Finally, still in the field of office furnishing, screens (this term meaning low partition walls which do not extend up to the ceiling) have for some time been used within a work space, for example, for dividing one work station from another. These screens may also be equipped with shelves, suspended fittings, or work surfaces.
Hitherto, separate modular furnishing systems have been proposed for partition walls and for screens and work stations respectively. In some cases, integrated modular systems have also been proposed and provide both partition walls and screens.